Looking more and more like it's a reality.

As much as Cincinnati restaurants and bars were worried about smokers going accross the river, seems some NKY places are worried about losing non smokers to Cincinnati!

Public places called polluted
N.Ky. group claims smoking makes bars, restaurants unsafe
BY PEGGY O'FARRELL
EDGEWOOD - Secondhand smoke is making the air inside Kenton County restaurants and bars unsafe for workers and patrons, costing business, advocates for smoke-free air said Monday.

Northern Kentucky Action, a coalition of businesses, agencies and organizations, released a study showing tobacco smoke inside restaurants and bars is pushing air pollution levels in Kenton County hot-spots to about six times higher than the federal government says is safe.

The study was released as Covington City Commission gets ready to vote on an ordinance to ban smoking in city-owned buildings.

The ordinance, which gets its first reading tonight, would replace an existing law that allows smokers to use one room in each building. City Commissioner Jerry Stricker said he expects the ordinance to pass and force smokers to go outside to light up.

Ohio voters adopted a statewide ban on smoking in bars, restaurants and other public places last year.

No one's calling for such a measure in Kentucky, but Stricker said he'd like to see such legislation in Northern Kentucky at least.

There's been some discussion in Campbell County of a smoke-free ordinance, but Stricker said the three largest counties - Boone, Campbell and Kenton - would have to enact bans simultaneously for the restrictions to be effective.

"If we ban it only in Covington, smokers could just drive to Newport," Stricker said.

Matt Coleman, a member of Northern Kentucky Action and a senior health educator with the Northern Kentucky Health Department, said the group isn't calling for a smoking ban. Members are just sharing the data "to educate the public about the issue," he said.

Whether the data spurs legislation "is out of our hands," he said.

The study was paid for through a $5,000 grant from the Center for Smoke-Free Policy at the University of Kentucky.

The group's members include the American Cancer Society, St. Elizabeth Medical Center, the St. Luke Hospitals, the American Lung Association, American Heart Association, Northern Kentucky University and the Northern Kentucky Health Department. For the study, Northern Kentucky Action members took small air-quality monitors into 28 restaurants, bars and taverns in Kenton County.

On average, pollution particles small enough to be inhaled directly into lung tissue measured 199 micrograms per cubic meter, the study found.

Federal air quality standards for outdoor air set a maximum exposure limit of 35 micrograms of pollutants, said Heather Robertson, of the Clean Indoor Air Partnership and the Kentucky Center for Smoke-Free Policy at the University of Kentucky.

For the Kenton County study, air samples were collected Jan. 11-13. On average, workers who collected the samples spent 45 minutes inside each establishment that weekend.

Robertson said 14 communities in Kentucky have adopted smoke-free ordinances. Northern Kentucky is the only metropolitan area in the state that doesn't have such legislation in place, she said.

"It's a public health issue," she said, adding secondhand smoke affects the health of workers in restaurants, bars and taverns.

It's also an economic issue as employers and taxpayers have to pay higher health-care costs to treat smoking-related illnesses, including lung cancer, heart disease and stroke.

City employees who don't smoke get a 10 percent discount on health insurance costs, Stricker said.

Consumers who don't smoke don't like smoky environments in Northern Kentucky restaurants and bars, and it's costing the area business, he said.

"My guess is they're going to Cincinnati 'cause they hate the smoke. I know we're losing business because of it," he said.


First the city owned buildings then...
Who knows, it could hapen.
There are major cities in KY that are allready smoke free!